I love a good commercial. It is a hobby of mine to dissect commercials and identify the target audience, the message, the methods used to convey the message, etc. It is also fun to predict which commercials won't survive. By chance I once sat next to a top-notch commercial director, on a flight from the East Coast. He had made a number of recognizable commerials, so I was familiar with his work. We talked for hours about his business - the philosophy, the gimmicks, the politics, the future of advertising, etc. Not only did I find it fascinating, he was amazed to meet someone who was interested in the nuts and bolts of his field.

In the end, tv commercials are an artform. Some are really quite brilliant. Tsu and I both loved the very first few Geiko Gecko and Cavemen commercials.

Perhaps my least favorite commercials of all time were those with Mr. Whipple. But that in itself is evidence that the commericial was classic. To this day, perhaps over twenty or thirty years after the fact, the thought of Mr. Whipple is still annoying. You can't ask for much more from a commercial! "Ladies, please don't squeeze the Charmin!!!"

Since I got DVR I rarely see commercials anymore and when I do, I'm very sensative to their predatorial and manipulative attempts. One of my favorites (I have many) are the ones that tell me how pressed I am for time, how valuable it is and how this product will change my life. Advertising often demonstrates one of the more subtle wretched properties of humanity, ...

I don't know how this was calculated, but it was said at one time that Palmolive's, Madge, was the highest paid woman in Hollywood. I think this was based on the countless commercials made over a span of decades.

I like a good commercial, where someone has actually put some thought into it. My favourite in that respect is the following: presumably, the brainchild of a few marketing youngsters who even made the effort of making a dummy website to go alongside their commercial!

I Love My TickleMe Plant
My favorite is the one for the TickleMe Plant Greenhouse. In it you can easily grow a real house plant that MOVES when you Tickle IT! This is not a joke. The fan like leaves suddenly fold up when you Tickle It!
Tickle It again and the branches droop. Minutes later the leaves reopen. Just search TickleMe Plant if you have kids or you want to share your love of nature with your students....while supplies last of course!

I hate commercials. I like to watch national news and compare and contrast with NewsHour, but the commercials are sick! Actually the majority of the commercials are for drugs for perhaps-real/perhaps-made-up syndromes. After touting how wonderful the drug is, the manufacturer then has to warn you that you will have to have regular liver screenings, women who are pregnant or could become pregnant must NOT even touch the pills, etc. Also, there are the warnings for "tell your doctor if you are planning surgery", contact your doctor if you start having suicidal thoughts, or if your eyes fall out (just kidding!?). Are the people who watch network news a bunch of self-diagnosing hypochondriacs? Judging from the wall-to-wall drug commercials, they must be hitting their demographic...

Staff: Mentor

I Love My TickleMe Plant
My favorite is the one for the TickleMe Plant Greenhouse. In it you can easily grow a real house plant that MOVES when you Tickle IT! This is not a joke. The fan like leaves suddenly fold up when you Tickle It!
Tickle It again and the branches droop. Minutes later the leaves reopen. Just search TickleMe Plant if you have kids or you want to share your love of nature with your students....while supplies last of course!

Sounds like the touch-me-not plants that grow everywhere as weeds. We used to touch them all of the time to watch them close. I wouldn't buy one, you can find them in fields almost everywhere.

I hate commercials, but every couple of years I'll catch a show on a station like TBS that chronicles the funniest commercials of the last couple of years, a lot of which are spit out your drink funny.

I hate commercials and feel they significantly contribute to destructive behavior in American culture. The images are often deceptive and misleading. For example, a teenage girl maybe 16 is used to pedal cosmetics for older women in hopes of seducing them to recapture that youthful look. Commercials brainwash people into over-consuming and acquiring material wealth sometimes at the expense of the relationships they have with one another. For example, the man sometimes has to expend a large part of his time making enough money to support his consumer habit brought on by the seduction of the commercials. This leaves him less time to spend working on his relationship. And oh that "diamond is forever" crap put out during the holidays is the one I hate the most. What's a guy gonna' do? He's just gonna' have to buy her one cus' she's there too and watchin', givin' him the eye. For what? A stupid diamond. What about your relationship? How's that goin? Diamond ain't gonna fix it. And the cars? Just gotta' have one, or two or three, or I mean, the whole front yard is packed with um'. Who cares about the pollution? And all that crummy processed food they pedal ruining the health of millions of people contributing in my opinion significantly to the obsity epidemic in America. And lets not forget the alcohol. Always lookin' cool drinkin' in those commercials never once alluding to the terrible, horrible effects alcoholism has on families.

Well... old Flo from the Progressive commercials is actually a well-respected actress and comedienne named Stephanie Courtney who has appeared in movies such as "The Heartbreak Kid" and is a founder of The Groundlings improv troupe. That's not to suggest that I would buy insurance from her; I'm merely pointing out that they didn't just randomly snag some dip out of an alley and make her their spokesperson.
There are some commercials that I like, some that I detest, and I totally ignore the other 99%.
Annie Potts... there's one. She was both gorgeous and naked in "Corvette Summer", and now she's Mother Nature in Tampax commercials. Who the hell belted her with an "ugly stick" when I wasn't paying attention?
Dori Kelly in the Glade ads turns my crank to an indecent degree. I don't care that she's older than dirt and likes things that smell stupid; she's hot.
I love, believe it or not, the JG Wentworth ads for the music. I'm not a huge fan of opera, but the 15 seconds or so of it that they present is very pleasant.
The one that I absolutely can't abide is for Cold Water Tide detergent. Some moron keeps chanting "I'm cool like that". At the first indication of it coming on, I am leaping for the remote to hit the mute button. Most of you know that I'm actually a fairly even-tempered dude despite the name, but I honest-to-**** want to put a bullet through my TV when I hear that one. It makes me absolutely furious. The only other one that rivaled it was that whiney ***** in the Nyquil commercial about 30 years ago. The "Zoomzoom" kid from the Mazda ads was approaching that status before he got turfed. (In a national poll, he was actually voted the second most-hated person in Canada, right after Brian Mulroney.)
I absolutely loved the old Alka Seltzer gigs. "Try it; you'll like it." "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." "Mama mia, that'sa some spicy meatballs." Those things were little snippets of comedic genius, with perfectly-cast actors.
There's a book that I read when I was a kid, that might be kind of neat for you to check out if you can find it and have a couple of hours to spare. Unfortunately, I can't remember the title or the name of the author. He was an advertising copywriter giving a behind-the-scenes account of what went on in the business. Hmm... his last name might have been Brown, but my memory barely extends to yesterday let alone 35 years ago. The main title was something insipid such as "Selling It' or the like. The subtitle, however, which was printed nearly as largely, said it all: "Making Commercials is Such a Dog-Eat-Dog Business It's No Wonder They Call Them Spots."

Annie Potts... there's one. She was both gorgeous and naked in "Corvette Summer", and now she's Mother Nature in Tampax commercials. Who the hell belted her with an "ugly stick" when I wasn't paying attention?

Be nice, Dan. She's just 6 months younger than me, and you can't keep age at bay forever.